


The Catnip

by Friendlylycanthrope



Series: Let's Talk About It [19]
Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: BFS typical shenanigans, Catra Redemption, Drugs, Filler Episode, Fluff, Gen, Humor, One Shot, Stoned, catnip, high, no cats were harmed in the making of this film, soup related discourse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-25
Updated: 2020-05-25
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:56:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24371665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Friendlylycanthrope/pseuds/Friendlylycanthrope
Summary: Not long after Catra had arrived, she remembered getting into the gardens for a nap. She could recall one plant that she wanted to check in with again after getting a single whiff of it’s intoxicating smell. Presently she was in between missions and had nothing to do to fill her time until she received more news from the field. It seemed like the perfect time to educate herself on the horticulture here in Bright Moon.
Relationships: Glimmer/Adora
Series: Let's Talk About It [19]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1714624
Comments: 9
Kudos: 107





	The Catnip

**Author's Note:**

> No cats or Magicats were harmed in the making of this fic.

Not long after Catra had arrived, she remembered getting into the gardens for a nap. She could recall one plant that she wanted to check in with again after getting a single whiff of it’s intoxicating smell. Presently she was in between missions and had nothing to do to fill her time until she received more news from the field. It seemed like the perfect time to educate herself on the horticulture here in Bright Moon. 

The plant was more than just exciting to smell, it made her mouth water. Her pupils grew in size just looking at the beautiful soft leaves. The more she smelled, the duller her senses became, and soon her only focus was to consume it in order to satiate her great thirsting desire for this lovely plant. 

These thoughts were some of the last coherent things to go through her mind before everything became fuzzy, and she felt like she was floating. It felt so smooth and fuzzy all around her that she laughed, something was hilarious. She didn’t know what, but it sure was tickling her. 

Bow found her. He had been looking for her to double check some reports, but that all got put on the back burner when Bow found her in the greenhouse, lying on her back with her arms above her head, and her feet up on a bench. She was... Purring?

“Uh, Catra? You alright there, pal?”

Catra didn’t respond at first. She kept giggling weakly and swatted her hands around in front of her face as though trying to shoo away a fly that wasn’t there. 

“Catra, what’s gotten into you?” Bow pleaded, kneeling down beside her. This seemed to catch her attention and she gasped as she grinned from ear to ear with her mouth wide open. 

“Bowseph!”

“That is still not my name.” He corrected as usual. That’s when he spotted the upturned pots not too far away. They were turned over and the soil fell out, but the roots still held it together from where it had been seemingly gnawed down. His eyebrows flew up at the site. He investigated closer for signs of a struggle as to what could have possibly led to this. When he picked up a pot to examine it, his eyes grew wide in realization when he read the label. 

“Oh no.”

  
  


***

  
  


“Glimmer!” Catra said with joy, throwing her arms up. She seemed more than delighted to see the princess, and not at all like her usual self; which is why Glimmer put out some defensive karate chop hands to ward off the feline from hugging her rather than accept the affection. 

“How much did she have?” She asked with concern. 

“How much  _ was _ there?” Bow answered. “Because there is now none left.” 

“Oh man, your hair is  _ so _ sparkly... it looks so soft, Glimmer can I  _ touch _ it?!” Catra was already reaching out for Glimmer’s hair without waiting for an answer. Glimmer struggled to keep Catra at arms length while she reached desperately for Glimmer’s hair. 

“So we should get Adora, right?” Bow asked nervously. Glimmer teleported out of Catra’s grasp to appear right next to Bow, shaking her head at the distracted magicat before them. She gasped and tried to catch the bright shimmering sparkles left behind in the air after the teleport as they vanished. 

“I don’t see what Adora would be able to do. It’s not like anyone could just sober her up.”

“Well maybe she’s got experience with Catra doing anything like this before.” Bow pointed out. “They’ve known each other forever, maybe this has happened before.”

“Yeah but it’s not like Catra knew what to do when Adora got infected from that corrupted disc.”

“Still, it feels dishonest if we hide it from her. We can’t just not tell her.”

“It’s not hiding anything,” Glimmer argued. “You know Catra is going to be super embarrassed about all of this as soon as she’s better. I would be too!”

“But we’re the best friend squad!” Bow whined, causing Glimmer to roll her eyes. 

“Okay fine, we’ll keep this just between the best friend squad. But maybe just hide her from my mom or anyone else until she feels better.”

“Uuuh, wait a minute..” Bow looked to where Catra had been lying before they had started talking. “Where did she go?”

A quick pan of Glimmer’s room revealed that Catra was no longer present, and Glimmer and Bow shared a knowing frightful look. 

  
  


***

  
  


“So you just found her like this.” Adora deadpanned. She was wearing Catra like a human backpack, after the latter had climbed onto her and wrapped herself around Adora’s rock solid frame, clinging desperately to her for stability as Adora moved effortlessly. Her tail alone was not wrapped around Adora’s torso, and it waved back and forth rapidly behind her. 

“Adoraaaa, you’re so _ tall _ _!_ ” Catra awed with wide eyes. Of course normally they were the same height, only about an inch difference between them. But Catra felt like she was atop a high tower. 

“Yeah, about twenty minutes ago.” Bow explained. Glimmer quirked an eyebrow with extreme suspicion as Catra nuzzled her face into the back of Adora’s neck, wanting to peel the woman off her girlfriend. 

“Maybe we should get Perfuma.” Adora said, totally willfully ignorant of how clingy Catra was being on her body. “She might know about the plant, or a way to fix it. Swift Wind can get there the fastest. If I leave now, then---”

“Nooooo, Adoraaa!” Catra whined. Her claws punctured Adora’s clothing painfully and Adora’s mouth became a thin line in pain. “Adora don’t leave me behind again!” She cried. All the other three winced at the sentiment. 

“Or, you know, maybe I could go!” Bow offered. The other two sighed in relief at the proposition. 

“Great, you go out to Plumeria and get Perfuma to help.” Adora agreed. “And we will handle... This.” Catra was slowly sliding down from Adora’s body as her grip strength weakened, and she dropped down like a fireman on a pole made of solid muscle. When she hit the ground, she laughed weakly. Adora and Glimmer and Bow looked at each other nervously, fearful of what the next few hours would look like. 

  
  
  


***

  
  


Keeping Catra contained was a challenge. She was like a toddler who was let loose inside a palace made of candy, wandering around gaping at all the colors and lights with wide eyes and gasping. Her gait was wobbly and unbalanced as her tail swung around with a mind of its own. 

“Woah, easy there, soldier.” Adora braced her hands on Catra’s shoulders to steady her. Glimmer was nearby, shaking her head and smiling at the once proud military leader making such an embarrassment of herself. She was so totally going to tease her about this later. Should she record this? 

Catra noticed Glimmer smiling, and became happy all over again, and reached out for Glimmer’s hair once again. 

“Still trying to touch the hair?” She asked. “No, bad Catra,” 

“Soft!”

“To be fair, your hair  _ is _ super soft.” Adora smiled, wrapping one arm around Catra to effectively restrain her. Catra nodded in agreement. “Like, is that part of your magic? It is unnatural. And the sparkles? It’s amazing.”

Glimmer blushed red in surprise to see Adora gush about her, and not only that, but Catra was under her arm and totally agreeing. She was lucky to have a great girlfriend like Adora. Catra would probably be over it soon anyway though. 

“Are you guys hungry?” Catra interrupted their lovesick glances. “I. Am.  _ Starving. _ ”

They both chuckled at the strange child between them in the form of an adult soldier. 

“Alright, let’s grab some lunch.” 

  
  
  


***

  
  


Catra devoured the sandwich that they made her, and was still hungry. She picked her way through the kitchen as though on a mission, while supervised by Glimmer and Adora. Adora munched on an apple as she watched, and they leaned against the counter. 

“So this never happened before?” Glimmer asked. 

“Not like this exactly.” Adora said after a pause to contemplate. “I’ve never heard of a plant that can make people like that. But back in the horde, there was this one time when Catra, Lonnie, and I all broke into Sergeant Molly’s desk---she taught us math--- and we stole a nip of her liquor. We didn’t know what it was at the time of course, we just knew we  _ super _ weren’t supposed to have it.”

Catra in the meantime was assembling ingredients in a bowl without measuring them. She hazardously threw in syrup, strawberries, and milk with excitement. 

“Really? How old were you?”

“Hmmm, probably like twelve?” Adora guessed as her face scrunched up as she thought back to the memory. “Kyel and Rogelio distracted her while Catra picked the lock. Once we got it, we passed it around in the barracks and it affected Catra and Rogelio more than anyone else. It tasted awful.”

“So you had to eat pasty bars for nutrition and they got alcohol?”

“Well, when active duty soldiers seized any supplies from the rebellion, the high ranking officers got dibs on any consumable goods. But yeah, the cadets never got any. That’s why we stole it. It was all Catra’s idea in the first place, and then she got horribly sick from it. Wait, Catra, no knives!” Adora quickly returned to Catra, and took the knife away from her. 

“What are you even making?” Glimmer asked, looking in the bowl with uncertainty. 

“Breakfast soup,” Catra explained as though it should be obvious. 

“Catra, I told you, they call it cereal here.” Adora sighed. 

“Yeah, that’s not cereal.” Glimmer pointed out. “That’s just stuff in a bowl.”

“Isn’t that the point of soup?” Catra asked. “Soup is just stuff in a bowl. And so is cereal.”

“Wait, are you saying cereal is a soup?”

“She... actually kind of has a point...” Adora said, rubbing her chin in thought. 

“What? No, I refuse to think of cereal as a soup.” Glimmer argued. “I mean, for one thing, cereal is cold! And soup is served hot.”

“Well not all soup, right?” Adora brought up. “There was that one time we were in the Kingdom of Snows and they served soup cold. It started with a G what was it called...”

“Yeah yeah,” Catra agreed, even though she had not been present at the mentioned time. “And there was that one time we had hot cereal. The kind with the horse food in it.” 

It took Glimmer a moment to think of what Catra was trying to say. 

“Oatmeal?”

“That’s the bitch!” Catra snapped her fingers. Glimmer had to think quickly to come up with something else. 

“Okay yeah fine, there is one kind of soup served cold, and oatmeal is considered a hot cereal.” She scratched her head in thought. “But soup usually has a meat base, right? It has to have a broth. And the broth is usually always made of the meat juices.”

“Milk is the broth.” Catra said, pointing to her mixture. 

“No it isn’t, not in this case.” Glimmer said, quickly refusing the munchie snack that was offered her. 

“But what about vegetable broths?” Adora askes. “There are vegetarian soups.” This caused Glimmer to put her face in her hands. 

“Ugh. Well still, milk isn’t a broth.”

“It could be.” Catra said. “If we don’t have a way to define broth, then milk is  _ definitely _ a broth. I mean, it's got protein, its liquid, it has stuff floating around in it,”

Glimmer groaned at the annoying turn of events. She wasn’t sure which was worse, Catra trying to touch her hair constantly, or having to explain to two ex-horde soldiers the difference between soup and cereal after they had barely a clue about most food on regular Etheria that wasn’t a bar. 

She may have been annoyed, but some part of her was tickled that she was doing this at all. The three of them seemed to get along great, and she would rather debate soup classification than have to battle. These two always made things interesting. 

  
  


***

  
  


After making sure that Catra had a healthy snack that she didn’t make, they tried to peel her away from the kitchens. They were walking the huge halls of the castle as the day moon started to set on the horizon. 

“Adora, there you are,” Renee called down the curved hall. Adora went rimrod straight and saluted the senior officer, while Glimmer quickly grabbed Catra and his her just out of view from the General. 

“General Abner!” Adora greeted. She tried to not let her nervousness show, but she was always a terrible liar. 

“I’ve been looking for Catra.” Renee explained. “I got the field report back early and needed to go over something with her. Have you seen her anywhere?”

“Uuuuuuh nope!” Adora lied completely unconvincingly. Renee raised an eyebrow. “Oh did you check uh... her room?” She tried to deflect. Renee crossed her arms. 

“Yes. That was the first place I looked.” She said flatly. 

Meanwhile, as Adora kept trying to dig a deeper hole for herself, Catra was snuggling into Glimmer’s arms as the latter tried to keep her from running off. She even started purring in the warm soft embrace. Clearly she didn’t understand that she was being restrained, not hugged, for she hugged Glimmer back. 

“Do you hear that?” Renee asked, taking a step around Adora. But Adora just blocked her path.

“Oh! That’s just-- my stomach! Yeah, I’m so hungry. And my stomach is growling.” She lied. Abner didn’t buy it for a minute. 

“I see.” She lied. And Adora, sweet loving and gullible Adora, believed her rather than hearing the sarcasm it was laced with. “Well if you see Catra, send her my way.”

“Yes, ma’am! Will do!” Adora saluted again with a big corny grin to convince her (it did not) and the General walked away. Although, she did still walk away hiding a stupid grin on her face, shaking her head at the shenanigans. 

Adora raced around the corner and found Glimmer containing a purring Catra. Glimmer looked unamused. 

“Do you think she bought it?” Adora asked.

“Oh definitely.” Glimmer lied. Adora sighed in relief at the approval from her girlfriend. 

“Awesome. Do you think we can contain her in your room?”

Catra reached up and ever so delicately cupped Glimmer’s face with her hand. Glimmer had never realized before that she had soft beans on her fingertips and she blushed. 

“Aw, I love you too, Princess. You guys are like my best friends.” Catra said sleepily. Adora and Glimmer were both confused at the conversation she seemed to think she was having, since none of them had said that they love Catra recently. But Glimmer rolled her eyes with a smile and grabbed Adora’s hand to teleport them all to her room. 

They appeared and again Catra tried to catch the little sparkles in the air from the magic, finally detaching herself from Glimmer. 

“Okay, all we have to do is make sure she doesn’t leave this room.” Glimmer said. The sparkles of magic had faded, and she distracted Catra by throwing a signature sparkle bomb at the floor. It excited Catra, and she started to swat at the glowing lights as though she were trying to catch them.

The next hour was more close supervision. Adora laughed to see Catra so loose and relaxed, and Glimmer was relieved that the edge of her high seemed to be fading. Catra tried to climb everything and they had a hard time keeping up with her athletic acrobatics for a bit before she got distracted by something else. She moved around the room like a kid on a sugar rush, trying to touch everything. 

They were relieved when Glimmer’s door opened up, and Bow and Perfuma came in. 

“I came as soon as I could!” Perfuma yelled in distress. 

Catra was lying on the floor, and held up a boot that she had found as though she were holding a live weapon. 

“Pew pew!” She mimicked at Perfuma with a smile. 

“Oh I see. She must have had quite a bit then, for it to still be this strong on her.” Perfuma analyzed, clasping her hands together in worry. 

“Please tell me you know a way to fix her so I don’t have to lose all my hair.” Glimmer groaned.She had been fighting off Catra most of the afternoon and evening, and it looked like she had a bad case of bed head after Catra had successfully run her hands through it, not realizing her claws were out. Perfuma nodded and pulled a pink flower out of her robes. Its petals were white on the tips, and only slightly bent from the journey here. 

“In small amounts, it can leave her system naturally, but we may want to accelerate her metabolism for this much. Catra, come here a moment, won’t you?”

“You’ll never take me alive!” Catra yelled, and leapt out the window.

“NO,” Glimmer grunted as she teleported, then instantly reappeared with Catra in her arms.

“I would have made it, Glim!” Catra whined.

“For the last time, you cannot fly!”

“Not fly,  _ float! _ ”

“Could you just be a dear and eat this tasty flower for me?” She asked politely. For some reason, Catra looked shocked. 

“You are literally the nicest person I’ve ever met,” Catra said, holding back tears, “like my best friend, and, and you are really going to give me your only flower?!” The other four looked at each other nervously then back to Catra. “This is so special, I don’t even know what to say!” Next thing they knew, Catra was wrapping the flower girl in a hug as she tried not to cry. “You are seriously the best, you are too kind. To just, give me your flower.”

Perfuma awkwardly tried to pat Catra’s back with her free hand. 

“Uh, don’t, don’t mention it?”

  
  


***

  
  


Catra had a headache. It was the first thing that came to her when she woke up. It felt like her skull was being wrung out like a wet towel and she thanked whoever was looking out for her that it was dark, providing a slight comfort. She still moaned in pain before stretching out her arms and legs, splaying out her fingers and toes as far as they would reach as she yawned. She smacked her lips a few times. She sighed when she realized that no matter how much she stalled, she would have to get out of bed and face the day, pounding headache and all. She had work to do. 

Catra pushed away the blanket over her and sat up, feeling groggy. It was still morning, and the birds sang outside. She yawned again, displaying all her pointed teeth. 

Then something caught her eye. A note on her nightstand, next to a tray with pastries and juice. Breakfast in bed? What would merit that?

She read over the note once, then twice. It was from Glimmer, Adora, and Bow. She could hardly believe the things they claimed had happened, but at the same time it sounded almost familiar like a forgotten dream she had had. 

Then there was a knock at the door. They came in without waiting for a response. 

“Are you guys trying to pull something on me?” Catra asked Adora. She came in alone, already showered and dressed, ready for the day after her morning fitness routine with the guards. “There’s no way, where’s the proof.”

“Catra, trust me when I say that I was doing you a favor by not letting Bow record you with his pad.” Adora smiled. “How are you feeling?”

“Like my head weighs a thousand tons.” Catra replied, going for the breakfast that she had found with the note. 

“Well, no more catnip for you. All traces of that plant you ate have been removed from the castle grounds.”

That sounded a bit more familiar. She could remember smelling a beautifully intoxicating green plant. But she shrugged it off. 

“Okay, whatever. Did you have any reason for coming here?”

“Yeah, one more thing. What are your thoughts on cereal and soup?” Adora asked, her grin growing as she teased Catra. Her response was to roll her eyes. 

“Cereal... oh, is that the one where they have soup for breakfast?”

Adora laughed, certain that this was not the last she would hear about it from Catra or Glimmer. 

  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> This is the last of the one-shot filler episodes before getting back to the main stuff. Hope you enjoyed! There will be more filler episodes in the future, as they are my favorite class of writing. Up next get ready for some development in the Glimmer/Catra department. Please comment with your thoughts, and don't forget to kudos and subscribe for daily updates!


End file.
